2020 was the year communication became the number one priority for business owners. It was also the year business leaders and agencies including my company, saw a spike in the need for advice around all things comms, marketing and PR skills, writes Sharon Williams founder of Taurus Marketing.

One of the most surprising spikes was the role of social media and companies moving marketing and communication spend to the online world – away from events, coffee meet ups, travel budgets and socialising.

The increasing move to online

If you weren’t already online before the pandemic, you certainly needed to be during and post, to navigate and survive the impact. Social media continues to play a major role in the business world.

Social media builds brands.

Whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or other emerging social media tools available to us as business leaders, it is our responsibility to leverage the platforms from a mature and strategic point of view. Your social media profiles should leave visitors with an understanding of who the business is, what your core values are and what you uniquely have to offer.  As the new go to venue in Sydney, The Crown Hotel in Barangaroo has established a commendable social media presence, with stylish visuals, key messages, and high post engagement. Viewers can instantly see the luxury experience on offer through the images presented across social platforms.

How has social media adapted?

It has become more empathetic, visual, and brighter as people needed light and understanding.

It is out there to witness.

From restaurants such as Bel and Brio re-working their social to offer home-cooked delivery meals, and chefs such as Luke Mangan turning his restaurants to online takeaway through to educational establishments such as UTS College moving to lessons online – most brands are finding ways to pivot and as such their social media profiles must adapt and change.

Communicating digitally and visually has become more the norm and so much more familiar.

For us as an agency, we saw the social and digital world take a leap in maturity and innovation.

Brands have stepped up.

If you haven’t taken a look at your own social media profiles, now would be a good time to do so.

My own Social and Digital team have certainly upped the ante in our social interaction. We have drilled down and re-checked our personas, finetuned our target audience, refreshed key messaging and revitalised the imagery. We are already seeing an increase in engagement.

While you plan for 2021 and take an annual review of your marketing strategy – take a moment to refresh your social media platforms.

The 5-step social checklist

1. First audit your profile

• Audit your results last year across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn etc – how did you go?
• Are they still the right platforms to engage in?
• What split of effort/budget does each one need?

2. Review the market

• Review competitors and what they are doing
• Has anything changed in the trends you see emerging? Redundant?

3. Review your own strategy

• What is social meant to achieve for you and your business?
• Why are you there in the first place?
• Is the spend/effort worth it?
• How can you improve on what you did last year?
• Is it going to work this year?

4. Set new goals

• Review your KPI’s
• What will success look like if you review it in 6 months or a year?
• Define that Bullseye – create the target so you know when you’ve reached it

5. Measure and improve

My mantra is always that you have to identify the Bullseye first up and lay down clearly where you want to go so you know and can celebrate when you’ve got there.

You can’t hit the target if you can’t see it.

Every business dollar you spent should see a return.

Strategy and putting time into the why – and the planning upfront is everything.

A few hours reviewing and refreshing your social media strategy from last year will bring you fast results – it has for me and my team at Taurus.

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